


FFVII Folk Tales: Mighty Isanda

by ixieko



Series: FFVII Folk Tales [3]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Folklore, Gen, Original Character(s), Summons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 09:47:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5622982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ixieko/pseuds/ixieko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A shaman raises a boy and gives him a difficult task, completion of which will change the boy's life forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	FFVII Folk Tales: Mighty Isanda

Long, long ago, when Churindari was as green as its name, a shaman lived beside the river Surinda, in dense forest that was called Sigi. He was not a kind shaman to whom people would go for a blessing, no, he was a black shaman who could brew poison or bring a curse upon your enemy’s head. He was old, white-haired, with skin as dark and wrinkled as tree bark, and he was as ill-tempered as a malboro. He never left his small hut, never visited any villages, but people went to him, bringing goods as payment for his services.  
With him, a boy lived, whom he said he found in tundra. Nobody knew the boy’s name or who his parents were, and the shaman named him Umun, or “orphan”.  
The shaman did not like nor Sun nor Moon, and never let his stepson to go out of the hut when the sky was clear.

For twelve years Umun lived with the old shaman, sweeping floors, cooking, mending clothes and doing all other boring homework. When he grew big and strong enough, the shaman told him, “You are ready to begin your training, boy. Here is your first task: bring me the youngest daughter of Sun and Moon, beautiful Timar Osikta (The Morning Star - M.), and I will show you how I use the powers of Earth.”  
Umun asked, “How can I catch her? She lives in the sky village, that hovers above the highest peak of Northern mountains, and I cannot fly.”  
"Go to the mountains," The shaman said, "Here lives the smith who forges metal that fell from the sky and metal that sleeps in the ground, he will give you wings. But remember that you should always hide from both Sun and Moon, and do not believe a word the Morning Star would say, for she is cunning and can trick you."

The boy took a loaf of bread, and a flask of water, and a net woven from steel threads, and went to the mountains. There he found a cave where lived the smith who forged metal that fell from the sky and metal that sleeps in the ground, and asked him, “Please, make wings for me. I need to fly to the sky, to catch the Morning Star.”  
The smith said, “I will forge wings for you, but I need a pot of the green blood of the land, that flows deep in the ground. Go to the deepest caves of these mountains, find it and bring it to me.”  
Umun went to the deepest caves and found the place where the green blood of the land was flowing, but it was guarded by a dragon.  
"Please, let me take the land’s blood," The boy said. "I will give it to the smith, and he will make wings for me. I need to fly to the sky, to catch the Morning Star."  
The dragon looked him up and down, and said, “Bathe in the land’s blood, and if you will survive, take as much as you need.”  
Umun bathed, and not only survived, but became stronger than any man. He filled the pot with the green blood of the land, and gave it to the smith, and the smith took metal that fell from the sky and made strong black wings for him. Umun waited for the time before dawn when both Sun and Moon were sleeping, and flew to the sky-village.  
He went to the first house that was painted red, and looked through the window, and saw an old woman with white hair and white wings and eyes like burning fire. He went to the second house, and looked inside, and saw an elderly woman with wings black as wet soil, and orange eyes. In the third house, he saw a middle-aged woman with ash-grey wings and eyes like molten gold. He then went past other houses to the very last one that was painted violet, and looked inside, and saw a girl with snow-white skin and wings, and silver hair, and eyes like shining amethysts. He went inside, and cast his metal net over her, and caught her, and flew from the village, carrying her with him.  
"Please, let me go," The Morning Star begged, but he ignored it.  
When she saw where he was heading, she begged again, “Please, don’t give me to the black shaman! He will take my light, and twist it into darkness, and fill the land with monsters born of that darkness.” But Umun remembered shaman’s words and did not listen to her.

They landed before the shaman’s hut, and Umun called out to him, “I’m here, and I brought the Morning Star!”  
The shaman went out of the hut, and saw them, and laughed so loudly that the ground shook under their feet. “Finally!” He shouted, “Finally I have the daughter of Sun and Moon! Thank you, boy, for bringing your half-sister to me! Here is your reward, that’s how I use the powers of Earth!”  
He laughed again, and raised his black staff, and ground parted under Umun’s feet and swallowed him whole. Then, the shaman took the Morning Star, and left his hut, and went to the far North.

For many, many moons Umun lay buried, but he did not die, for he bathed in land’s blood and was stronger than any man. While his body slept, recovering, his spirit went on those ways where shamans go when they light their enchanted fires and beat their enchanted drums. On his way through the land of spirits, he met the spirit of a woman that once was his mother, and she told him that when she was alive, she was the best huntress in all Churindari, and she tamed a dragon and traveled through the sky. There she met the Sun and fell in love with him, and had a son. But the black shaman, who was infatuated with her, was jealous, and so he killed her and took Umun away.

For three years Umun traveled through the land of spirits, until his body grew strong enough to push rocks and soil apart, and he climbed out of the ground. His right hand was crushed and useless, his left leg was twisted and could not support his weight, and so he took a long and sturdy stick and went, leaning on it, to the nearest village, but found it burned down. Then he went to another village, but it was deserted, all houses broken, and white bones littered the streets. He went to the third village, and found the only survivor, an old woman.  
"What happened to the village?" He asked her, and she told him that every night horrible black-winged monsters were coming from the Northern mountains, eating or taking away everyone they could catch. She herself was alive only because she hid in abandoned bandersnatch’s den and covered herself with animals’ remains.

Umun understood then that it must be the black shaman who sends monsters, and he went to the North, where he saw a column of black smoke that was coming out of the northernmost part of the mountains. He went through mountains all day, and hid in the snow when night fell, and winged monsters did not notice him. But when he reached the place from where the smoke was coming, he saw a great castle made of ice and steel and big boulders, and knew that he could not fight his way inside it.  
He turned back and went all the way to the cave where the smith lived, and asked him, “Make a new body for me, for this one is broken and useless.”  
The smith said, “I cannot forge you a new body, but I have something that could be used as such.”  
He led Umun to the hidden cave and showed him a great weapon, shaped like a giant human body in heavy armor that was shining like silver and gold, and Umun agreed to put his spirit inside the armor. The smith took Umun’s heart and liver and placed them inside the armor’s chest, and it came to life.  
Umun then said, “With this new body, I take the new name. Now I will be called Isanda, or Weapon.”  
He went to the black shaman’s castle, and his body was so heavy that it sunk waist-deep in rocky ground like in soft marsh mud, and he went, leaving behind a great scar on the land’s face.

When the black shaman saw Umun, who now became Isanda, he sent all his winged monsters to attack, but their claws, their fangs and their magic could not harm the metal warrior. He destroyed castle walls, and crushed the black shaman, and put out his enchanted flame. Without the flame, the dark magic vanished, and all monsters fell dead. Isanda went down to the deepest dungeons and found the Morning Star there, and released her from her cage, and called out to the Moon who was sitting on her high spot in the sky: “Here is your daughter!”  
The Moon touched her daughter with her gentle rays and cured her, and the Morning Star began to shine again and opened her eyes. When she saw what happened to her half-brother, she cried, “Mother, Mother! Is there no way for him to fly with me to the sky?”  
The Moon took pity on Isanda, and touched him with her rays, and his body shrunk down in size and hid in the small round orb, light enough for the Morning Star to carry.

For many years Isanda stayed in the sky village, until he grew tired of being trapped in his red crystal orb, and asked to return him to the ground. They say that he lived somewhere in the Northern mountains, and when his half-sisters visited him, he walked through ravines, carrying them on his shoulders. They say that even now he sleeps there, once again hidden in his orb, in the cave far away from any human roads, and will sleep until the world will complete its full circle and the times will begin anew, and then he will be freed from his indestructible metal body and join his sisters in the sky.  
White-faced, blue-eyed people of the South call him Alisand (Alexander. - M.), because they cannot say our words right.  
 _(From “The tales of North”, Evan Marius, 1932)_

* * *

 

"This _definitely_ is about Cetra. Who else could this Morning Star be? Look: white wings, white skin, eyes like amethysts, some kind of nature-magic…”  
"Gast, we’re talking about people who had had a saying, _`Neighbor’s reindeer are always fatter`_. I suppose, that applies not only to reindeer, but to women as well, figuratively speaking. Of course, sky-women would be prettier than their own.”  
"But, Grim, this one, just like the one about the witch wife, points at some place in the Northern mountains where some kind of magical or supernatural being used to live."  
"Sorry to disappoint, friend, but even if both tales point at the same place, there are no specific directions, and the Northern continent is very big."  
"Well, it’s only the beginning! We still have around two hundred tales to study. We are bound to find something useful!"  
"Your enthusiasm is… disturbing."


End file.
